USD: 72 Days after arrival at Fort Glisson

Location: Van Biesbroeck’s star, Meltisar, Fort Glisson, Company S, 1st Cadre

Alex sat down across from Rachel at the mess table with her dinner. She was so distracted by a single thought that she hadn’t even realized they’d put chicken with mashed potatoes and gravy on her tray.

There were only five days left and then they were free!

With the passing of the physical tests, they’d all been dropped down to a single morning and evening session of PT. The rest of their time was spent studying for their next post. Most of the cadets would be going on to AIT, Advanced Individual Training, which was for whatever specialty they’d been wedded to.

A few like herself would be going back up into orbit on to MIL-1A for OCS.

But the lesser physical demands hadn’t lightened her mental load. Although there had been a few times when she’d been physically stressed by the activities Alex could count them on a single hand. Mostly it had been sparring.

With the addition of Nameless being awake to help her and discussing things with Tia when they found a moment of privacy, the elation of their upcoming graduation was still tinted by a bit of fatigue.

“You look more tired than when we first got here.” Rachel commented.

“It kinda feels that way to be honest. The classes have been killer.”

Rachel frowned, “It’ll only be more like this in OCS.”

“I know. I picked up a good tutor to help me figure out the things I don’t understand.” Alex said, thinking of Nameless.

The frown on Rachel’s face deepened. Despite not having touched her food much she pushed her tray away. “I noticed.”

“Hey, what’s wrong? You don’t seem too happy.”

“I’m just surprised at how well you are getting along with Tia so suddenly.”

Alex felt the words as a blow to the stomach. She didn’t think they had been that obvious, although several times the last few days they had made a point of meeting up in their free time to discuss Tia’s plans and what they would do going forward.

“Oh. Yeah, she’s been helping me with some things.”

“You could have asked me. I can help with some things, too.”

Alex blinked. “I ask you for help with the how stuff works and history things all the time.”

“Yeah, and it’s weird. I never imagined that education of such basic things on the frontier is neglected so much. Imagine not even knowing the significance of the relationship between the old Federation, IFRB, and the four powers!”

“Yeah… a lot of the stuff they just assume everyone knows as a matter of course.”

A frustrated look on Rachel’s face left Alex feeling lost.

“You still haven’t explained to me why Tia was targeting you.”

Rachel picked up her tray, gave Alex a look of exasperation and then left.

Alex stared at the other girl’s back in confusion until Rachel left the mess hall completely.

[Informative: A direct interrogation of Celestia’s MainComputer could provide audio-visual logs pertinent to the matter at hand.]

“No, that would be a violation of… of privacy. I think I’ll try asking Tia again. I’m tired of not understanding what’s going on.”

[Informative: Sub-core Celestia has avoided answering Avatar inquiries into this matter in the past.]

Alex hurried up and finished her food, unable to enjoy it at all which just made her feel more frustrated.

After returning her tray she headed outside. “Where is Tia?”

[Informative: Celestia Sub-core’ Avatar is located inside Avatar’s dwelling unit.]

“Great.” Alex turned toward her barracks. She maintained a quick pace that wasn’t quite more than a walk. The stupid drama between her bunkmates had been a troublesome undercurrent for most of their time there.

She’d put up with it because she just thought Tia was mean, or over-competitive and put it out of mind. It had become less of an issue after she’d gotten back from leave, but now that she had actually spent time with Tia and got to know her better, Alex felt it wasn’t acceptable anymore.

Rachel was her friend, and despite everything, she liked Tia and thought her goals weren’t even bad. Plus, while Alex didn’t quite grasp all the hardships Tia had been through, she was more than capable of sympathizing with the other girl.

She didn’t need Tia and Rachel to be friends, but she did need them to get along. Especially since they were all going to be going up to OCS together. There were going to be dozens of other officer-candidates from the other training bases and having some people she knew would be invaluable help.

When she opened the door to their bunkroom, she found Tia sitting at the desk with her datapad. The other girl turned in her swivel chair and rose an eyebrow at Alex’s dramatic entrance. “Yes?”

Alex shut the door behind her a bit more gently than she came in but then she steeled herself and looked directly at Tia. “Why were you bullying Rachel?”

Tia’s inquiring look transformed into a poker face as she stood up and moved to leave.

Alex blocked her path. “You both avoid answering the question, but I want an answer.”

Tia stopped and stared at her and folded her arms. “Look, it’s complicated. It’s not even relevant anymore, anyway.”

[Informative: A direct interrogation of sub-core would be a more efficient method of information acquisition.]

Tia paled and took a half step back.

Alex’s eye twitched. “Nameless shut up, I told you that wasn’t acceptable.”

She didn’t move out of Tia’s way, though. Alex started shaking her head slowly.

“That’s not good enough, though,” she said firmly. “Rachel is my friend. I don’t understand what’s going on.”

Tia hesitated for a moment before finally looking away. “Ertan, you really have no idea, do you?” She looked back at Alex with an angry glare. “Fine.”

“Half of it is your fault. Rachel and Jessica were screwing around all over the barracks.”

Alex blinked in shock. “What?”

“It wasn’t bad at first. I mean it was bad, but they were at least discreet. I told them to knock it off, but they didn’t listen. No one would say anything because you protected them. Everyone pretty much thought you were fucking with them, and no one was going to cross the second strongest person in the class.”

Alex frowned, discarding the ‘second strongest’ quip and thinking back to the things that Tia had done. “You stole our clothes in the shower.”

“They were fingerbanging in the stall beside yours. How did you not know?”

Alex stood silent racking her memory. Jessica and Rachel had been together all the time, but wasn’t that just because they were friends? Like she and Rachel were? That thought brought up the memory of their kiss and Alex’s cheeks heated in embarrassment.

“I didn’t know.”

“No one would report them, and you covered for them all the time. When you went off to orbit, everyone drilled down on them and Jessica cracked.”

“No wonder Rachel is pissed off by you.”

Tia shook her head, “I didn’t do anything then, I didn’t need to.”

“This is all so fucking… stupid. I thought you were just a mean person.” Alex frowned trying to sort her thoughts. “What you didn’t wasn’t right, either.”

“What? Someone should have reported it? Do you think anyone wanted to end up like the other cadre? We’d still be running pointless laps around the barracks. The best thing would have been for them to knock it off. Basic is only eleven weeks, not the rest of their lives.” Tia countered.

Alex stopped herself from blurting out her first thought that basic had felt like forever to her, and instead took a deep breath.

“You all thought I was… doing it to?”

“Everyone did, yes. I didn’t really think so, because I slept in here with the three of you, but after… you really went for it with our kiss I didn’t know what to think anymore.”

Alex’s cheeks heated back up right when they had just started cooling down. Looking away she stumbled with an apology, “S..sorry. I was just… wound up from something else and taken by surprise.”

She paused as she tried to form her response. “It was out of line… the over aggressive kissing part.”

“So what had you ‘all wound up’ then?” Tia asked.

“The truth is Rachel and I… we did kiss. Recently. It was the only thing on my mind for a few days.”

“So, were you fucking or not?” Tia asked bluntly.

“No! It was literally my first kiss with anyone.” Alex said quickly.

Tia stepped forward and Alex took a step backwards.

“You’re such an airhead. You need to get your emotions and thoughts together. Rachel kissed you and you liked it?”

Alex blushed at the question. As Tia took another step forward Alex took another back without thinking only to bump into the wall causing her heart to skip a beat.

Tia smirked, “Are you going to get flustered and lose your head every time a girl comes on to you?”

“Maybe just the hot ones.” Alex answered without thinking,

“Heh.” Tia closed the last remaining distance between them.

Alex was still trying to think when Tia kissed her. Oranges. That was what Tia’s lips tasted like, the same as before. The other girl’s lips explored hers this time instead of trying to escape, their roles reversed. Although that instinct to try and escape died almost immediately as Alex leaned into the kiss herself.

Tia’s hands found Alex’s waist then slid down to squeeze her ass. She hadn’t been expecting that and turned her head away. “Wait. Stop.”

Tia leaned back a bit, but didn’t move away. “That didn’t sound very convincing, or like an order. Weren’t you the one thinking about forcing an interrogation earlier?”

“But I do want you to stop, and no… that was Nameless, not me.”

Tia looked at her with a puzzled expression when the door suddenly opened. Alex and Tia’s heads both jerked towards a stunned Rachel.

There was silence for a moment, Rachel’s eyes wide like a deer caught in headlights.

“Oh, sorry.” Rachel mumbled as she shut the door suddenly without coming inside.

“Ah, shit.” Tia commented.

Alex pushed passed Tia. “Rachel, wait!”